The rapid decline of the Hopewell culture about 1,500 years ago might be explained by falling debris from a near-Earth comet that created a devastating explosion over North America, laying waste to forests and Native American villages alike.
Researchers with the University of Cincinnati found evidence of a cosmic airburst at 11 Hopewell archaeological sites in three states stretching across the Ohio River Valley. This was home to the Ohio Hopewell, part of a notable Native American culture found across what is now the eastern United States.
The comet's glancing pass rained debris down into the Earth's atmosphere, creating a fiery explosion. UC archaeologists used radiocarbon and typological dating to determine the age of the event.
The airburst affected an area bigger than New Jersey, setting fires across 9,200 square miles between the years A.D. 252 and 383. This coincides with a period when 69 near-Earth comets were observed and documented by Chinese astronomers and witnessed by Native Americans as told through their oral histories.
Many citizens living in the Marmara and Aegean regions shared the images of a meteor shining green light on social media.
The claim that a meteor fell in Istanbul was on the agenda of social media. A statement came from the Turkish Space Agency regarding the green light-emitting object viewed from various points in Turkey.
The green light beam seen in the sky of Istanbul at night surprised those who saw it.
Images shared by citizens on social media sat on Turkey's agenda. It was a matter of curiosity what the object seen from many cities was. Some users claimed that a meteor fell in Istanbul.
A green light rapidly descending from the sky caught the eye in the images.
This stunning bolide was spotted over Spain on January 30, at 3:16 local time (equivalent to 2:16 universal time). It was as bright as the full Moon. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from a comet that hit the atmosphere at about 255,000 km/h. The fireball overflew Morocco. It began at an altitude of about 146 km over Oulad Sidi Abd el Hakem (east of Morocco), moved northwest, and ended at a height of around 62 km over Tafersit (northeast of Morocco).
This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, Sevilla, La Sagra (Granada), Huelva, El Aljarafe, and La Hita (Toledo). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).